How to improve your Swimming Dive | Expert tips from Olympic Champion Stephanie Rice

So when it comes to starts, there's a couple of really key steps. So to start out with, before we even get on the block, we need to move the kicker to our designated spot. Now you can move it between anywhere from one to five and everyone's going to have a personal preference as to how far back or how far forward they like that kicker for that back foot to rest on. For me personally, I think it's really important to make sure that when you crouch down in the dive position, that that foot that's sitting on the kicker feels like it's giving you power to push from. If it's too close, you're not really going to get that real big push back, which is the benefit of having the kicker. And if it's too far back, you won't feel like you get to fully utilize that big pressure and big push that's going to come from the legs. For me personally, I like to set the kicker at number four. When I'm crouched down in the take your marks position, you can see that I've got a nice bend in that back leg and it's really in a good position for me to really drive off the blocks when that starting gun goes. Once you have your kicker in its allocated position, we're going to get on the block and get down into the take your marks position. Now the take your marks position is really, really important. And one of the things I really want to drive home here is when the umpire says take your mark, you need to have tension through your whole body. So you really need to make sure that your hands are locked on really gripping tight to that block. And you've got tension all through your hands, wrists, arms, your back is nice and tight. Your leg at the front of the block is got your toes curled over. You've got a lot of tension in that quad and that back leg on the kicker is really ready to drive off the block. When the umpire says take your mark, you need to feel all of your body lock on having a lot of tension so that as soon as you hear that gun, you can spring and power off the block. Essentially, what we really need to make sure of here is that as soon as that gun goes, you are ready to go as well. We don't want to cause any delay or any extra wastage of time here. So get yourself into that take your marks position, feel all your body lock on, tension through your whole body. And then as soon as you hear that gun go, you're going to look with your eyes up to where you want to land into the water. Now I know I mentioned this in the swimming videos, but where your eyes go, you will go. So it's really important that you look where you want to enter the water. If you look down, you're going to go down. If you look too far ahead of you, you're going to almost belly flop. So really set your eyes on the point in which you want to enter the water and spring off that block with so much power. Now if I pause the video here, you can see that midair, I've still got everything locked on. My whole body is tight and in particular my core. My hands are already in the streamline position with my arms really close to my ears and everything is locked on and really tight. So the key here is that our hands, shoulders, hips and feet all enter in the same part of the water. When I slow the video down, you can see that my hands break the water, my shoulders follow, my hips and my feet all enter into the small circular section of water. So as soon as you spring off that block, you're going to get your arms into the streamline position. Your legs are going to be really straight and locked on together. I really want you to feel your inner thighs really pulling your legs together. You've looked at where you want to enter the water and now your head is in the streamline position and you're going to keep your body as locked on as possible as you enter the water so that we can really maximize our underwater kicking.